How the Schildburgers Prepared Chambers in Their Town Hall

The Schildburgers cut windows in their town hall and set about arranging the interior.

First, they decided to tidy up the Jester's Chamber, then move on to the Chamber for Toiling, and finally, after everything else, the Chamber for Sweating.

It didn't take long before the triangular town hall, to the delight of all the jesters, was fully arranged and freshly illuminated.

Winter came, the first snow fell, and the mayor blew his famous horn. Hearing it, the Schildburgers hurried en masse to the town hall. And it must be said that they had grown so wise that none of them forgot to bring a log—after all, they needed to heat the stove, and it wouldn't do to burden the treasury with the expense of firewood. But when they gathered in the Jester's Chamber, they saw that not only was there no stove in the town hall, but there wasn't even a designated spot for one.

Once again, the Schildburgers were thrown into confusion.

"Are we, like long-eared donkeys," they exclaimed, "never going to get our town hall in order? Where are we supposed to put the stove now?"

Some suggested building the stove outside the door—there, they said, it wouldn't bother anyone. Others didn't like this idea: after all, the mayor was supposed to sit right by the stove, and this way he'd be stuck outside the door! That would be a laughingstock!

The Schildburgers listened to many different suggestions. They debated and deliberated for a long time, inspected all the suitable spots for the stove, but couldn't decide where to place it. Finally, one advisor proposed building the stove outside the window, right on the square. He explained that if the mayor wanted to sit by the stove to keep his wisdom from freezing, he could be given a spot by the window. From there, he could gaze at the stove and warm himself.

This suggestion pleased all the Schildburgers, and they clapped their hands in joy. But among them was one resident who was never satisfied with anything. This "never satisfied" man stood up and said:

"You say it should be this way, but I say it should be that way. Where, for example, will the heat go that's supposed to warm our chambers, where we're meant to sweat and toil? Out into the street! And no matter how much we heat it, we'll never warm the whole street. Am I right or not? And for the heat from the stove to reach our Jester's Chamber, we should take a fishing net, attach one end to the stove on the square, and the other to the window. That way, all the heat will come straight to us—it won't have anywhere else to go. Am I right or not?"

"You're right," replied the mayor. "And for your wise advice, you have our deepest gratitude and honor. From now on, the second spot by the stove will always be yours."

And so, the Schildburgers decided to place the stove on the market square and stretch a fishing net from it to the town hall—this way, the heat from the stove would flow straight into the chambers, both the ones for sweating and the ones for toiling, and even the ones where they carried out their jesterly affairs...

I must admit, I was worried they might invite me to join them and assign me some jesterly position, but when I heard one Schildburger say to another, "Why would he even try? He's not up to our level," I immediately felt at ease.

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How the Schildburgers Prepared Chambers in Their Town Hall

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